Whips are an extremely unusual class of weapons in Elden Ring. They have good reach and can’t be parried, but those benefits come with a slew of downsides. They can’t land critical hits and have more limited options for Ashes of War than other weapon types. Not even to mention how there aren't many of them in the game.
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That said, most of Elden Ring’s whips have unique qualities that make them viable options for taking on your foes in the Lands Between. And some of them are more viable than others, of course. Here is every whip you can find in Elden Ring, where to find them, and ranked by how worth it they are to build around.
6 Whip
Stat
Required Level
Strength
8
Dexterity
14
The basic Whip is not a good weapon. It has all the disadvantages of the weapon class while also being the whip with the lowest damage. And unlike most other Whips on this list, it lacks any unique benefit that would push it over the edge into viability. The only reason to use the whip is that it’s found earlier in the game than any other Whip, and by a significant margin.
If you go through Castle Morne and jump down the cliffs and towers behind it, you’ll find the whip on a corpse in the room at the bottom, just before the Site of Grace. It’s not exactly a convenient location, especially since Castle Morne is an optional area. Still, the earliest you can find an alternative is in Liurnia of the Lakes, and that’s only if you’re willing to kill Diallos and skip the rest of his quest line. If you’re going for a whips-only run, you’ll be using the whip for quite a while, whether you like it or not.
5 Thorned Whip
Stat
Required Level
Strength
8
Dexterity
16
The Thorned Whip is one of two Whips that causes Bleed buildup, an extremely powerful status effect that can shred enemies if they aren’t immune to it. It is also one of the only Whips you can get two of in a single playthrough, although doing so might not be a fun experience.
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You have to farm one specific enemy: a Fire Prelate. There are only a few Fire Prelates in the game, and the Thorned Whip only drops from the one guarding the bridge north of the Zamor Ruins in the Mountaintops of the Giants. The drop rate is fairly low, so you might be farming for a while if you don’t get lucky. Even worse, there’s a good chance you won’t find the effort worth it since there’s a Whip further on this list that fits the same sort of build that the Thorned Whip does but is better in pretty much every way.
4 Urumi
Stat
Required Level
Strength
10
Dexterity
19
Visually, the Urumi is less a whip and more a really long, flexible sword. It gets a unique charged-heavy attack that thrusts it forward like a spear, allowing you to hit targets at an even more extreme range than usual. Its main selling point, though, is that it has the highest damage of any whip in Elden Ring.
Its damage is most impressive when you give it the Keen infusion, allowing it to get a rare S scaling in Dexterity. It’s one of only three weapons in the game that can do so, and the other two are Daggers, which have some of the shortest ranges in the game. The Urumi may lack the bells and whistles of the best weapons in its class, but if all you want is a Whip that deals a lot of damage when you hit things with it, it's your best option. You can find it on the southeastern ramparts of Caria Manor, surrounded by a group of Lesser Fingercreepers.
3 Hoslow’s Petal Whip
Stat
Required Level
Strength
10
Dexterity
20
Hoslow's Petal Whip is why the Thorned Whip doesn’t rank higher on this list. It out-damages every whip other than the Urumi thanks to its high base damage and has the best Bleed buildup of any weapon in the class. Dual-wielded Hoslow's Petal Whips can inflict Hemorrhage exceptionally quickly, and like the Thorned Whip, you can get two of them in a single playthrough.
The first you get either by killing Diallos or finishing his questline, and the second by killing his brother, Juno, near the end of the Volcano Manor questline. It definitely requires jumping through some hoops, but at least you don’t need to spend an hour or two killing a single enemy.
2 Magma Whip Candlestick
Stat
Required Level
Strength
8
Dexterity
16
Faith
18
The Magma Whip Candlestick is the shortest whip in the game, which mutes one of the few advantages Whips have over other weapon types. However, it differs from the Whips we’ve seen so far in a few key ways. It’s the first whip with a unique Weapon Skill: Sea of Magma. It causes you to swing the Magma Whip Candlestick in a circle around you, leaving pools of magma on the ground that continue to damage your enemies. Additionally, while every whip scales with Strength and Dexterity, the Magma Whip Candlestick adds Faith scaling. It’s not great scaling, maxing out at B in Dexterity, C in Faith, and D in Strength, but it’s enough to make the weapon a viable weapon for New Game Plus since there are more stats you can increase to gain damage.
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Getting the Magma Whip Candlestick isn’t exactly difficult, but it is missable. You have to continue Patches’ questline until he moves to Volcano Manor, then join the Volcano Manor and finish Tanith’s first request. At that point, Patches will have a job for you: kill Great Horned Tragoth. Do so, and after some prodding, Patches will give you the Magma Whip Candlestick as a reward. Obviously, killing Patches at any point before he reaches Volcano Manor will break the quest. You also need to acquire the Magma Whip Candlestick before killing Praetor Rykard because that will cause Patches to leave Volcano Manor, and he won’t offer the quest anymore.
1 Giant’s Red Braid
Stat
Required Level
Strength
18
Dexterity
12
Faith
21
The Giant's Red Braid shares a lot with the Magma Whip Candlestick. It possesses a powerful Weapon Skill in Flame Dance, which also involves twirling the weapon in a wide arc. However, Flame Dance has a wider range and hits faster than Sea of Magma, making it more versatile, even if its damage potential is lower, as it doesn’t create magma pools.
The Giant's Red Braid also has Faith scaling, but its scaling is much better than that of the Magma Whip Candlestick, getting a B in both Strength and Faith when fully upgraded, along with a C in Dexterity. The Strength scaling also makes it the only whip suitable for Strength builds, and its high scaling overall makes it a great option for New Game Plus and beyond. And that’s important since you can’t get the Giant’s Red Braid until extremely late in the game. You’ll have to defeat the Fire Giant (hence the name) at Flame Peak and trade the Remembrance of the Fire Giant he drops with Enia in the Roundtable Hold.
Next: Elden Ring: All Fist Weapons And Where To Find Them
